Fast <strong>fashion</strong>: From dirty production, to trends, to trash Coal powered power stations providing energy <strong>for</strong> textile and garment manufacturing Clothes factories making garments Finished clothes packed and ready to ship to <strong>fast</strong> <strong>fashion</strong> shops Container ships export clothes to <strong>fast</strong> <strong>fashion</strong> shops Used clothes being processed <strong>for</strong> shipment Bales of used clothing Fast <strong>fashion</strong> Stores Extraction and refining of oil <strong>for</strong> manufacture of synthetic fibres Growing of cotton, using large amounts of fertilizers and pesticides Textile factories - spinning fibres and making fabrics, using large amounts of energy and chemicals Intensive use of hazardous chemicals causing irreversible pollution Textile pollution in waterways from manufacturing and the growing of cotton Unwanted clothes waiting to be bundled into bales Shoppers buying <strong>fast</strong> <strong>fashion</strong> in the USA the avarge person bought 64 garments in 2013 Recycling <strong>fast</strong> <strong>fashion</strong> <strong>for</strong> export. 4.3 million tonnes traded in 2014 Environmental concerns - why detoxing textiles is crucial but not enough Our consumption of <strong>fast</strong> <strong>fashion</strong> is pushing at the boundaries of the Earth’s capacity to absorb greenhouse gases, hazardous chemicals and clothes waste as well as depleting resources such as water and land. On any level, this cannot be sustained. “Fast <strong>fashion</strong> is now a large, sophisticated business fed by a fragmented and relatively low-tech production system. This system has outsize environmental effects: making clothes typically requires using a lot of water and chemicals and emitting significant amounts of greenhouse gases. Reports also continue to emerge about clothing-factory workers being underpaid and exposed to unsafe—even deadly—workplace conditions …” 12 To compete in the ongoing race to make and sell clothes that are ever cheaper, the textile industry has relocated to countries with low labour costs and inadequate regulations. Despite regular media attention and NGO campaigns, suppliers in those countries are being pushed beyond their limits, with significant environmental and social impacts, such as the poisoning of rivers with hazardous chemicals, unacceptable working conditions and the use of child labour. Since 2011, Greenpeace’s Detox campaign has been challenging this environmental toll and has gathered support from 78 companies, including <strong>fashion</strong> brands, large retailers and textiles suppliers, to achieve greater transparency and zero discharges of hazardous chemicals in their supply chain manufacturing by 2020. Imports of clothes from countries with no regulation on nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE) have been found to be contaminated by these hazardous chemicals that are likely to be completely removed during washing throughout the lifetime of the garment, and have the potential to enter the aquatic environment. For UK alone, it was calculated that they could have accounted <strong>for</strong> up to 173kg of NPE emissions to the water environment in 2011. 13 This chemical is being progressively eliminated by companies committed to Detox. However, if the trend <strong>for</strong> more and cheaper clothes continues, any gains that are made on eliminating hazardous chemicals will be outstripped by higher rates of production and consumption in the industry as a whole. High energy use is another reason why “the textile industry is considered one of the most polluting in the world”. 14 The purchase and use of clothing contributes about 3% of global production CO2 emissions or over 850 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2 a year, from the manufacturing, logistics and usage such as washing, drying and ironing). 15 Fast <strong>fashion</strong> expansion wouldn’t be possible without the rising use of polyester, which is relatively cheap and easily available and is now used in 60% of our garments; in 2016 about 21.3 million tonnes was used in clothing, an increase of 157% from the amount used in 2000, which was about 8.3 million tonnes. 16 Reliance on polyester is increasing the environmental impacts of <strong>fast</strong> <strong>fashion</strong> – when the fossil fuels <strong>for</strong> polymer production are taken into account, emissions of CO2 <strong>for</strong> polyester in clothing, at 282 billion kg in 2015 - are nearly 3 times higher than those <strong>for</strong> cotton, at 98 billion kg. 17 Polyester is also not easily degradable; synthetic microfibres are released from clothes when they are washed, eventually making their way into rivers and seas, where they can potentially take decades to degrade. Microfibres can have a range of impacts once they reach the aquatic environment, such as impacts on feeding activity, 18 or carrying invasive bacteria that can be harmful to humans. 03 04
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